General News - 10 Years of RPG Trends

December 23rd, 2012, 02:14

RPGamer did some digging and created an article where they show the trends in RPGs over the last 10 years.

Most of us have a general understanding of what is happening in the RPG world, but many of the trends that were identified didn't cross my mind prior to this analysis. For instance, I could have sworn there were more western RPGs and fewer JRPGs on the market, but western RPGs have simply become more high profile in North America and more JRPGs are moving to new platforms. Also, while it was clear that there have been fewer RPGs on console platforms since the heyday of the PlayStation 2, I wouldn't have assumed that portable systems were starting to lose traction. And while it's clear that the mobile market is looking like the new frontier for RPG releases, this release trend shouldn't be terribly surprising or tremendously upsetting. A substantial amount of the population owns a smartphone of some type, and with more uniform development specs and low publishing fees, RPGs can be far cheaper to develop and release on mobile platforms than they ever could be on consoles or portables. The development process is so favorable on mobile platforms that even inexperienced developers can get in on the action